Mohammad Kaif’s ‘doctoring’ comment re-ignites pitch row around 2023 ODI World Cup final, puts Rohit Sharma & Rahul Dravid under the scanner | Cricket News – Times of India

India’s defeat against Australia in the ODI World Cup final last year was preceded and followed by a lot of talk around the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and accusations of home team trying to influence the preparation of the playing surface in their favour.
Re-igniting that debate with his comments on an interview to Lallantop, former India batsman Mohammad Kaif said focusing too much on the pitch “messed up” India’s preparations while the Aussies learned from their mistakes during the league-stage loss against the home team.

He said skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid were keeping a close eye on the preparation of the pitch that kept changing as the match-day came closer.

“I was there for three days, did a lot of shows. Rohit Sharma came in the evening with Dravid, went to the pitch, stood there for an hour and went back. They came again on the second day, and did the same thing. This went on for three days, and I saw the colour of that pitch change. No watering, no grass. It became a very slow pitch. This is the truth,” said Kaif.
“The thought was to give them a slow pitch, and they (India) did make a mistake there. People say curator did his job, we didn’t say anything. It’s all rubbish! You were roaming there, you are talking to him (curator). ‘Ghaas kum karo, paani kum daalna’ (reduce the grass coverage, don’t water much). You only have to say two lines. There’s nothing wrong in that, you are the home team, take advantage. But we didn’t use it properly,” the former India middle-order batsman added.
“Cummins had the learning from the first match against India in Chennai. He had won the toss and batted first, and India won the game easily in the run-chase. In the final, teams usually don’t opt for fielding. We did that in 2003 (World Cup final) and we lost. But Cummins learned from that and chased, irrespective of the occasion,” said Kaif.
“Hum wicket mei doctoring karne ke chakkar me phas gaye (we messed up while trying to doctor the pitch).”
Opting to field after winning the toss, Australia restricted India to 240 despite half-centuries by KL Rahul (66) and Virat Kohli (54). The Aussies then cruised to their sixth title with a six-wicket win with seven overs to spare, led by opener Travis Head’s century (137).